On Wednesday, February 21, forty one members including three new members, and two visitors kicked off the new season by welcoming Coral Gardiner from Bath. She was suffering with a cold or worse, but entertained us with her amusing tales and her wonderful designs. To interpret a wander down the garden, she started her design on a large bubbly glass plate (could it be Lalique?), using skimmia, hedera and tree ivy leaves and silver-backed senecio plus heads of brunnera from South Africa. She added dramatic purple twigs of silver birch, pale pink tulips, dark red-stemmed hellebores, shocking pink gerberas, a few stems of pussy willow and finally flowers of purple hyacinth. She used a wooden box attractively encased with silver birch for her second design which she called a pot au fleur for spring. She used a yellow polyanthus plant, the beautiful leaves of arum italicum with sprigs of golden euonymus and then yellow narcissi, cream tulips and yellow roses and then pale blue delphiniums and blue hyacinths and a few heads of the “snowball bush” – viburnum opulus. To this delightful arrangement, Coral added two heads of orange cana lilies and as her “accessory” a ball made up of eleagnus leaves.

The third design was created using an upright circle of woven willow to which she added small fatsia leaves, bright pink gerberas and heads of pink cymbidium orchids. For her next design which she called her seaside design, Coral used a tall upright piece of driftwood to which she placed grevillea in its natural form and a large sprig of ivy which looked a little like seaweed. She used rust-tinged begonia leaves, skimmia and pittosporum and for her ‘linear form’ heads of rust coloured bulrushes. The flowers were salmon-coloured carnations, pale salmon and peach roses and then beautiful heads of panicum grass to sway in the wind! Lastly, we were down on the farm. Her milk churn was decorated with pittosporum, laurel, fatsia leaves and skimmia. She added creamy white tulips and yellow gerberas to represent Jersey milk. Down the centre of the arrangement she placed yellow fragrant lilies, ‘blonde beauty’ roses and gold carnations.

We all much enjoyed her amusing chat while she created such beautiful designs and the lucky raffle prize winners went home smiling!

Pershore Flower Club meetings are held on the third Wednesday of every month at Bishampton Village Hall at 8 p.m. and if you are interested in joining us as a new member or as a visitor, please telephone Sheanagh Hickson on 01386 561210 or just come to the Hall. The next date is March 21.

DINAH WOOD